Four marketing lesson we can learn from Kayla Itsines

…and launching a new product or website (using Kayla Itsines as a case study).

A lot of brands and content creators alike come to me with an AMAZING business idea.

See, this is the exciting part. Creating, designing, scheming and mind-mapping.

Then we get stuck. Stuck in the ‘launching rut’.

With over 4 years and countless clients under my sparkling sequin belt, I started recognising a few recurring patterns which you want to recognise and correct now.

As a case study, I am going to use Kayla Itsines from the SWEAT app and Bikini Body Guide, which turned her into an online sensation.

These are the ideal answers I’d receive from hypotetical X when talking about their launching strategy:

1. ‘But Fab, I don’t want to annoy people’

This is a biggie, especially if you wear lady pants. Goddamit, I thought it was a British thing. Unfortunately, it’s not.

We don’t want to annoy people by reminding them that, hey, we are launching something. One Instagram picture and a tweet will do. And potentially sending one email 3 weeks in advance.

Uhmpf, that was hard work.

Guess what: you have to learn the fine art of being everywhere all the time. It’s a tough world the online one, and you have to be in people’s mind 24/7 if you want your launch to be successful.

Case Study: Kayla uses Instagram as her main marketing tool. Posting 5 times a day on aversge, including her link to her app on average 70% of the times. Plus we count the before and after pictures. Se also sends emails with articles and links to her guides regularly. This girl owns her product without fear of being annoying or invasive.

2. ‘Wait, I don’t have time now to create a campaign’

Most times we work backwards, putting 80% of our efforts into the content, bonuses, and pretty graphics, and 2 weeks before we launch we get on the marketing side of things. If you want to see results, you gotta flip that ratio. If you have an amazing idea for something that will change everyone’s life, make sure you grab your calendars now and set in stone the date of the launch, and the start of your launch campaign (one month in advance).

Now it’s time to get down to work.

Case Study: Kayla re-launched her BBG1 and announced she was going to join her ‘army’ on a set date, and encouraged new and old BBGs to join her squad (now it feels like a war zone movie). The point is, she started hinting at the new round of BBG1 one month in advance, making sure that her existing audience would get excited and send it viral. For her app, she released three months worth of free videos before opening subscriptions. Planning is sexy.

Case Study: Kayla Itsines is pro at this. She mixes live events with social media and her own blog, plus guest blogging in big publications. Being sure to reuse the message in different instances and in a unique format. You don’t want to promote your launch for the sake of it, you want to create content that makes people feel like they NEED you to help them solving a problem.

4. ‘Wait a second, how can I find people who’ll work with me’

The community is at the core of Kayla’s strategy. When you identify these brand ambassadors, highlight their contributions on your own platforms — in effect making them recognised experts about your product — by writing a blog about them, by showcasing them on your front page, and by providing them with “leaked” news first, or behind-the-scenes information about the product that they, as group leaders and respected 3rd party sources, can then disseminate to their followers.

No matter what tools you use, and no matter what your campaign is, there are people that will be able to influence their networks to help push your message .

Case study: Kayla celebrates her community and is clearly always aware of what they are up to: it’s not only a matter of progress photos. Kayla and her team clearly spotlight smaller groups dotted around the world in order to widen their reach and support them.